What a beautiful day. I slept in (was up late last night playing) - finally got out of bed and headed out to look at apartments - liked what I saw so far. This will be a continued process..details details details. Then headed out to Vienna and went on a really relaxing 51 mile training ride out to Hamilton and back - the weather was quite chilly, but it was perfect otherwise.

Rana few errands and came home to settle in for a relaxing evening of cooking (while watching Minority Report on tv)... I outdid myself, I made some fanstastic homemade spicy Hummus with roasted garlic, roasted red pepper & sun-dried tomatos. Then continued to prepare the second entree for a dinner I'm making for my parents tomorrow night - Chicken Rouladde, baked rolled chicken with a spinach, gorgonzola cheese, sausage stuffing. It's going to be such a feast.

Tomorrow - will be much of the same, another 50+ mile bike ride, more errands, cooking (the feast), then sunday night anxiety will settle in. Then into a work week.

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Ahhh...yes another day. Full of the wonderment of Spring ahead - still cold, but on the verge of Spring. Another day at work, wild tancid semi-corporate drama unfolding between 9-6, then all facile stress becomes retroHell as I suit up and embark on a bike ride. Low and behold, it was raining, and frigid - so the opportunity to unstress was not an option, and teemed with heading into a 1.5 hour commute home in NoVA traffic at full rush-hour in the rain made life even more unbearable.

I sat in traffic gritting my teeth and dreaming an evening of my cycling trainer and cooking something transitinally warm.

Got home, and spent about an hour on my trainer, sweating out herds of gland tears of stress - only doing 25 miles. Felt grand to unsurp the Gods of NoVA rush-hour traffic.

What better way to better unstress beyond a great sweatfest than to cook for 2 hours - I had a concept of the Winter-Spring transition to cook a huge batch of Butternut Squash & Apple soup

2 pancetta (or canadian bacon) slices, minced
1/2 stick butter (or equivalent in margarine)
1 large red onion, chopped
3 large cloves garlic, minced
1 medium butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cubed (yielding @ 6 cups)
3 granny smith apples, peeled, seeded and cubed (yielding @ 2-3 cups)
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground coriander
1/4 tsp curry powder
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp ground cinamon
2 cups half & half cream (fat free)
salt & pepper to taste

In a large skillet over high heat, stir pancetta until tender, add butter (or margarine), garlic, onions - saute until translucent with a glaze then add squash, apples - stir quickly for a minute. Pour broth in, stir and season with allspice, pepper, ginger, coriander curry, red pepper flakes, cinamon and salt - stir in and turn down heat, cover and allow to cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add cream and cook for 2 minutes. Ladle into a blender and puree until smooth. Serve immediately. Serves 6-10.

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365th post Placeholder (ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF THIS BLOG)

I will make a post specific to the celibration of this event, due to bad planning on my behalf, I didn't plan ahead to make it special - teemed with being horrendously busy at work.

Over this weekend, this post will change to reflect my excitement. So please come back.

Happy 1 year Birthday, Blog.

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oh just another day. commute to work, work, stress, bike, commute home, eat dinner, blog.

Tomorrow will be the one year anniversary of this blog. #365

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Mother Nature must be having a hormonal imbalance this week. Yesterday, it was warm - almost in the 70s, sunny. Today, I woke up to a blizzard. It was wild, on my commute in - it was clear but cold (it dropped 30 degrees overnight) and by the time I got to work, it dumped over an inch of snow, the winds picked up - gusts of 40-50mph, looked like a blizzard.

Then later in the morning, it stopped, sun came out - it stayed cold, wind was still harsh but the roads cleared. I didn't notice this until later while my workday was flying by faster than a Starbucks Coffee clerk on crack.

Suited up for my training ride - although had a feeling that it was going to be too cold and way too windy to ride. But the inner cowboy in me just wanted to chomp off a huge hunk of beef jerky, giddy up and go.

I got out there after the first lap - my hands were already frozen, toes cold and I had a single snotcicle, I continued on - the second lap the wind almost blew me off the road - I was about to give up. Third time is a charm - I headed back, completely frozen, dual exhaust snotcicles - I had to give up, the wind blew me into some ice and I amost wiped out badly. I'm crazy, but not stupid. I felt like a failed cowboy, came back only doing a total of 18 miles.

Was glad to get back to my car, warm it up and come home to some PJs, sweaters and slippers. I wish winter would end.

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I cannot begin to describe how wonderful it was today to have a preview of Spring - it was beautiful. One of those days where ya just wanted to play hooky from work and spend the entire day outside. It was in the upper 60s/lower 70s. Sun shining, I drove around on my lunch break with the sun roof open, windows down.

Work was a stupid exersize in buzzkilling the Spring day, but work had to be done - and stressful it was. FInally finished a huge project, shipped it off - with lots of drama from control freak ABBA. I was itching to head out and enjoy the warm weather, but was curtailed by more drama. I finally got out of there @ 6pm. If it was cold, I wouldn't care - but on a day like this, i gotta make the most of the warm weather.

Suited up sans booties or shoe covers nor full gloves, I wish I had bike shorts...wasn't prepared - made for a really sweaty 38 miles in long tights. It was a little gusty - but there were times that i was flying. Made it nice to have the breeze being overdressed.

I've started reading another book - actually a training plan, The Lance Armstrong Performance Program: Seven Weeks to the Perfect Ride. If I want to start doing some racing this summer, I need to be prepared - a little literary coaching I need. So far, what I've read in the training guide - I'm actually doing, so I'm right on track.

The weather in the next few days will be a little dicy - supposed to drop 30 degrees and begin to rain. Would totally suck. Such is life.

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Sunday Sunday, bloody sunday - U2

A strangely glorious windy day. Premature Spring-like conditions. Got up to the high 50s, and was very pretty, crisp clear, but a little on the gusty side.

Spent the morning doing domestic crap (gee, we all do it, need to do it), then later in the morning looking at apartments - yee haw, what fun. I looked at one complex today that required a minimum annual salary of $85,000 to even qualify for an application - gee, does not sound like equal opportunity housing to me. Meh.

Drove over to Vienna and suited up for a really long training ride. I later discovered that I was over dressed - warmer out that I anticipated. I was sweating like a dog. I went all the way out to Peonean Springs and then back. Rode with a few folks of the NVVC, we were all still unclear the direction of the wind - was gusting hard from every direction. All in all, a 58 mile training ride.

Finished up, then headed over to the bookstore and picked up a few things including this really funny book called Bicycle Love - Stories of Passion, Joy and Sweat - it's a real hoot, a mess of short stories/accounts by people who have a love of/for bikes/cycling. It's a fun, liberating read.

I have compiled the one of three recipes for the "gastronomically pleasing meal" I had last night, which will be redundant in my cookblog:

Scallops in an Herbed Fennel Shitake Mushroom Sauce

1 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 cup flour, for dusting
2 lbs fresh sea scallops, washed and patted dry
1 tbsp butter
2 tbsp herbed basting oil (1 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil, 1/2 tbsp Grape Seed Oil, 1/4 tsp Garlic Oil, 1/4 tsp each of dried thyme and parsley)
1 medium fennel bulb, sliced super-thin
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tsp fresh tumeric, minced
1 medium shallot, minced
4 scallions, sliced
1/2 cup cilantro
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1 cup rehydrated freeze dried shitake mushrooms (let mushrooms soak for a few hours in 1 cup Chardonnay and 1 cup chicken stock)
1 lime, juiced

Dust scallops in flour, set aside. In large saucepan, add olive oil and set heat to medium. Carefully add scallops and allow to brown on each side for 1-2 minutes, turn and brown other side. Add butter and basting oil, brown further for another minute flipping quickly. Remove after 2 minutes into covered dish.

In left over scallop drippings, add garlic, tumeric, shallot, scallion, red pepper flakes and saute for 2 minutes. Add fennel, cilantro, shitake mushrooms (including the mixture the mushrooms were rehydrated in), lime juice, salt and pepper. Saute until fennel is semi-translucent, then add scallops back - quickly toss for one minute then serve. Serves 4.

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